An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions. Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom, a young soldier, and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP. For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it's now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: I love a good post-apocalyptic story: stories of life after a nuclear war or contagion outbreak. It is at once thrilling and terrifying to think of how the survivors would react in a world where there is suddenly no law and no justice. I often wonder how I myself would carry on in a world like that, where I would go for supplies and safety.

Ilsa J Bick’s Ashes is just that type of story, and a pretty good one too. EMP’s knock out all electrical devices except older ones that don’t have modern electronic components in them. Then the nukes. Many people die, but many are also mysteriously changed into cannibalistic monsters. Still others, like young Alex, are changed in more subtle ways, suddenly having extra-powerful senses like Alex’s sense of smell.

I like how Bick doesn’t explain everything right off the bat. The main characters have no idea what’s going on and have to piece things together bit by bit as they meet other people. Bick lets us learn right along with the characters, which is the best way in my opinion.

I’ve already said so many good things about Katherine Kellgren in other reviews that I don’t quite know what else to say. She is simply one of the best in the business. Ashes wasn’t quite the kind of story for Kellgren to really flex her narrative muscle on, but she still turned in a fine performance. For a real sample of what Kellgren can do check out L A Meyer’s Bloody Jack Adventures.

Special thanks to source for this review copy. Audiobook review by Steven Brandt. This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook. Come back soon for more audiobook reviews from Audiobook-Heaven.